titanium powerbook battery won't recharge

Recently my mac had gotten unplugged, although I thought it was plugged in. Without giving me the "you are running on reserve power" warning, it just shut down. Now, the battery won't charge at all! If I put it to sleep and unplug it, however briefly, it shuts down, losing time and date.

It won't charge while I'm using it, it won't charge while asleep, it won't charge while powered off. The machine and battery is a bit old, and the battery life was down to about 20 minutes... but that was sufficient just to move the laptop without it switching itself off.

Will getting a new battery solve the problem, or is there something else wrong with it? This problem arose so suddenly that I'm a bit hesitant about buying a new battery in case that doesn't fix it.

Recently my mac had gotten unplugged, although I thought it was plugged in. Without giving me the "you are running on reserve power" warning, it just shut down. Now, the battery won't charge at all! If I put it to sleep and unplug it, however briefly, it shuts down, losing time and date.

It won't charge while I'm using it, it won't charge while asleep, it won't charge while powered off. The machine and battery is a bit old, and the battery life was down to about 20 minutes... but that was sufficient just to move the laptop without it switching itself off.

Will getting a new battery solve the problem, or is there something else wrong with it? This problem arose so suddenly that I'm a bit hesitant about buying a new battery in case that doesn't fix it.

FWIW, I've got a titanium powerbook (15") running OS X v10.1.x

Any advice?

It's been my experience with Lithium batteries that once the life has started shortening, any serious drain usually kills it. You might be able to revive it some by multiple insertions, the on battery electronics can prevent a really low battery from even trying to charge and the insertions kind of give it a tickle. But more than likely you won't have much life if it were to revive. The computer is worth saving and there are some China produced aftermarket batteries on ebay for about $80 (though the reliability is unknown). I saw some Apple batteries there also with bidding near that price. (And you can upgrade to 10.3.5(:)

It's been my experience with Lithium batteries that once the life has started shortening, any serious drain usually kills it. You might be able to revive it some by multiple insertions, the on battery electronics can prevent a really low battery from even trying to charge and the insertions kind of give it a tickle. But more than likely you won't have much life if it were to revive. The computer is worth saving and there are some China produced aftermarket batteries on ebay for about $80 (though the reliability is unknown). I saw some Apple batteries there also with bidding near that price. (And you can upgrade to 10.3.5(:)

That's really good to know. It's a work machine, so I can get them to buy a battery. I was just a bit worried that there was something more wrong with it; after all, it's not even recognizing that it has a battery (even after resetting the PMU).

Thanks for the info!

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